History Created - 5 Clean Sheets in a row

[Diane 500]

Must be worth a star on our shirt ?

[lake district canary 4,553]

Everyone seems so deliriously happy (quite rightly) with the last couple of weeks, with hardly any goals scored and playing to keep clean sheets, makes you wonder if maybe Hughton''s defensive approach was right after all.....[;)]

[Diane 500]

Also

1st win at M''boro in 29yrs.

1st clean sheet at M''boro in 41 yrs.

Stats courtesy of David ''Spud'' Thornhill on twitter who knows every stat there is to know

[GenerationA47 764]

Ho ho, LDC

It''s just great we''ve learned to win away again. (And that wasn''t meant to be a dig at Hughton!...although...)

[City 2nd 191]

lake district canary wrote the following post at 2017-09-27 2:36 AM:

Everyone seems so deliriously happy (quite rightly) with the last couple of weeks, with hardly any goals scored and playing to keep clean sheets, makes you wonder if maybe Hughton''s defensive approach was right after all.....

Hughtons defensive approach did not include scoring one goal, let alone more!

[Horse Renoir 1]

I know it was in the Premier League and Hughton had an extremely difficult job Lakey but despite that approach we conceded chances by the bucket load and were impotent up front.

I think Hughton did a decent job with the benefit of hindsight but I don''t agree that his approach to games was the right approach for us. We stuck with him longer than most would have and didn''t repay the faith. It''s a shame it didn''t quite click for him here but our mistake was not dismissing him earlier in my opinion

[lake district canary 4,553]

I was being a bit tongue in cheek with the Hughton comment, but it does prove it''s not just about goals - and 0-0''s and 1-0''s will get us up there, especially when we do it against the likes of Middsbro in their own back yard. 

[Horse Renoir 1]

Agreed. It''s refreshing! Fans want a team giving their all, we know from that the results will come, we''ve got that now alongside a great togetherness and connection with the club/fans. This is going to be an exciting ride, with or without loads of goals :P

[Diane 500]

It just needed some patience, so many changes, knew from the minute I met him at our fans forum that he would get us sorted and he will

[AJ 1,232]

Being able to win games 1-0 in any league is so important for success. Look at Leicester winning the prem. Great stats, let''s hope we can build on it even more

[andrew norwichcity 8]

If we have another 0-0 at our next home game I probably won''t be too impressed! I feel the reason we''re not scoring goals is partly a lack of squad players to cover the wings and striker position... without a doubt would have changed things up by now if we had another striker option or winger but looks like Jerome played very well in what must have been insanely tough/frustrating vs Boro. Can feel the ball is starting to roll so hopefully we continue the improved momentum.

[......and Smith must score. 1,365]

[quote user="Diane"]Also

1st win at M''boro in 29yrs.

1st clean sheet at M''boro in 41 yrs.

Stats courtesy of David ''Spud'' Thornhill on twitter who knows every stat there is to know[/quote]There that evening at Ayresome Park.Tuesday game with a 1-0 winner from Billy Steele, overnight train back to London and pretty much straight into the office.Those were the days.

[Woodman 92]

And apparently the previous win 29 years ago was with a certain B Gunn in goal. History repeating itself, can''t believe its nearly 30 years ago though!

[nutty nigel 7,656]

[quote user="......and Smith must score."][quote user="Diane"]Also

1st win at M''boro in 29yrs.

1st clean sheet at M''boro in 41 yrs.

Stats courtesy of David ''Spud'' Thornhill on twitter who knows every stat there is to know[/quote]There that evening at Ayresome Park.Tuesday game with a 1-0 winner from Billy Steele, overnight train back to London and pretty much straight into the office.Those were the days.[/quote]

Those were the days when we''d manage the odd clean sheet Smiffy but the clean sheet glass was never even half full. Right now it''s overflowing....

[JF 694]

Starting to get the feeling that something special is about to happen again. This one will be very different than the Lambert era that was gung ho, if you score 3 we will hit 4 football. But that defence now, coupled with Tettey and Trybull gives very strong foundations to build upon. I think we need to push the boat out for a really quality option up front in January for a genuine promotion push. It''s all suddenly looking very positive after such a woeful start.

[westcoastcanary 173]

[quote user="JF"] ........ But that defence now, coupled with Tettey and Trybull gives very strong foundations to build upon...........[/quote]I do wish we could stop referring to the back four as "the defence", and referencing the 2 DMs as if they weren''t part of the defence, not to mention the three in front of them, and even the one up top. Why can''t we think rather in terms of the whole team when out of possession and when in possession? Wildschut blocking a cross is as much part of the defence as Zimmermann heading an unblocked cross clear; and Klose putting Murphy through on goal with a long ball over the top is as much part of the attack as Murphy himself.

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

And there was the moment last night when Trybull was down injured, Boro rather unsportingly played on, and Jerome came back to cover so was playing left-back briefly...

[Diane 500]

Thought Jerome did a fair bit if defending last night, especially in some of their corners in the last 15 mins

[BroadstairsR 2,219]

What warms the cockles of the hearts of the average supporter most, keeping a clean sheet or keeping possession?

A Yellow Brick Wall or the occasional four goal haul for either us or the opposition?

A clean sheet is always comforting whoever the opponents might be and wasn''t Neil Adams''s greatest feat as a manager keeping one at Stamford Bridge during our glory years?

Boring Arsenal used to win a lot by never conceding but even the mural used to vacate Highbury after sixty minutes of stalemate.

Defensive McCarthyism down the road has reduced gates to levels of ridicule and extrapolated that elite club''s existence within the Championship to the extent that the Guinness Book of Records has become involved.

However, I do not think that our newly found remarkable defensive strength has come about by some over-riding strategical conversion in the mind of our head coach, but more by a combination of circumstances.

For sure, some soul-searching and bum spanking had to come about after Sunderland, Villa and Millwall but a few other things have come into place as well.

Klose''s return from injury is clearly one of those. Tettey being used more is another, along with the emergence of Trybull and Stiepermann.

Dare I say it that Russell''s days are numbered seems to have been firmly confirmed.

It''s more about players though, imo. The whole German experiment, which seemed in danger of being confined to the dustbin of Championship survival existence, did, it seems after all need time to adjust to the infamous English Championship game. I expected us to hit the ground running, others more tactically astute than me, anticipated a period of adjustment.

Above all, we haven''t got such a bad squad of players after all and that much maligned defense did indeed possess such a collective talent that even the likes of the admirable Hanley cannot get a look in.

It now seems that we might be competing for that top six spot after all. The up-coming local derby game will hopefully confirm this.

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

For me, having been at both the Boro and Sheff U games (as well as the Villa defeat, among others) the satisfying thing about the last two games is that we now look like a well-coached outfit defensively.  The back 4 know what they are doing, with Gunn looking outstandingly competent behind them.  Tettey and Trybull (especially) are looking excellent in front of them, on the flanks the players know what they are meant to do defensively, and Maddison/Jerome have contributed their share to defensive duties when we are out of possession.

 

At the same time, we looked good going forward in both games, albeit just in patches - after scoring we did sit back for long spells, but by no means all the game.  And no sign of the swashbuckling carelessness that we had all too often under AN.

Whereas under Hughton, for example, there were many away games when we had no attacking ambition whatsoever.

 

I was amazed when I looked at the table this morning and saw Sheff Utd are second !  We made them look pretty ordinary.

 

So the signs are very promising right now that the coach has got the players to understand what they''re doing defensively while still having a sensible attacking approach to away games at tough opposition.

[cornish sam 966]

Also, Daniel farke is currently the ncfc manager with the highest win %ge bar john Faulkner (according to wikipedia)!

[splutcho 176]

It''s funny that LDC mentioned it because I was thinking the same thing in regards to this feeling quite similar to the good times under Hughton, when we had that absurd unbeaten run in the PL with lots of clean sheets and lots of 1-0 wins.

Let''s hope this run has a better ending.

[Indy_Bones 442]

[quote user="cornish sam"]Also, Daniel farke is currently the ncfc manager with the highest win %ge bar john Faulkner (according to wikipedia)![/quote]Let''s not forget that Alex Neil had an incredible 68% win ratio in his first season in charge, which then dropped to 42% overall...

[Drazen Muzinic 1,452]

[quote user="Woodman"]And apparently the previous win 29 years ago was with a certain B Gunn in goal. History repeating itself, can''t believe its nearly 30 years ago though![/quote]

Me neither! Can''t recall much apart from the archaic concrete crush barriers.

Travelled up on Cabbage. Can remember what I though was a great goal from Flecky but TV showed it was a deflection.

Seem to remember Trevor Putney had a good game but still didn''t like him for his ex-bin connection.